This had been a shitty year for me, even before the COVID pandemic hit. Coteau Books, which was a long-standing literary press in Canada for nearly half a century, and which I’d served on the board of directors of for nearly a decade, entered bankruptcy protection in late February. I’ll likely do a longer post […]
This was the wrap-up for a major region-wide literacy program called “Time To Read” (with a slogan “Reader Pride”, a pun on Saskatchewan’s well-known “Rider Pride”) that I was involved with in my first job after I graduated from library school. It’s crazy to think how much in this photo is now being impacted by […]
Some stock up on toilet paper, some stock up on booze – why not stock up on reading material?
Walked Sasha over to her school’s Family Literacy Night earlier this week and we didn’t even read one story at the “Reading Activity Station” but we sure had fun playing with the stuffed animals and telling stories using crazy voices. One mom sort of glared at us goofing around and I was this close to […]
Speaking of the importance of being surrounded by books from an early age…
After a lifetime as a reader, studying English in undergrad, working with book publishers and writers across two provinces, attending book & publishing conferences where advanced reading copies are given out freely, even hitting way too many charity book sales and garage sales in my life, I suspect I own roughly a thousand books. How […]
Shea and I did a pretty major weeding of our kids’ book collections recently and I ended up giving a bunch to one of the teachers who regularly comes into my library (who also happens to teach at the school my kids go to so I have a soft spot for that school to begin […]
I mean I’m not personally a fan of the guy but we happened to have Justin Trudeau’s autobiography in our collection so I put it on an election-themed display I did (along with a range of books about various topics and issues that are important to supporters of all parties this election season. I also […]
Shea and I got around to a *long* overdue task of decluttering our garage this weekend. Strangely, it reminded me of when I was in my first librarian job and (purposely?) my boss assigned me a major weeding project. They just kept bringing me packed cart after overloaded cart of books and I had to […]
It’s referring to the high school he attended, not the private school he taught at. But the title of the prologue in a recent biography published about Justin Trudeau with his participation is pretty ironic given the recent brownface scandal that broke when a picture of Trudeau wearing makeup to look like Aladdin during an […]
